Started in Miami for super bowl...

Then back to la for Grammys then suddenly on Thursday...just four days after Super Bowl....three days before Grammys...on Thursday February 8th I'm inside the Staples Center talking Grammy show producer Ken Erlich around 11:15am pacific time when my blackberry starts vibrating like mad with what I soon learn is an email tip that Anna Nicole Smith has collapsed in Florida and is trying to be resuscitated ...

I speed back to access Hollywood offices....

Immediately go live on MSNBC as my blackberry continues to vibrate with details.

I learn from a source who overheard a Miami police cruiser radio break in with the news Anna Nicole smith has died.

But I need to confirm it through another source...however I'm live on the air.

Rita Cosby is also on with me and she has Ron Rale on the air by phone...he's Anna Nicole's attorney...and he breaks the news...live..that she has indeed died.

And from that moment I have been on the road.

By Buddy Singer, Access Hollywood Senior Field Producer
...inside the courtroom

Click Here To Watch The Live Feed Of The Court Proceedings

(2:00 PM) -- Judge Seidlin stops in hallway to make small talk with media. Asks if everyone is comfortable, if we want him to leave his chambers open for us. When asked if he will have this wrapped up by tomorrow, he responds, "No, Friday." He says goodbye and walks through a doorway.

(1:44 PM) -- Lots of chatter between Barth and Stern, much more than Virgie had with her lawyers. Stern nods in agreement as Virgie states she never met Howard Stern.

(1:40 PM) -- Virgie takes the stand. Howard's turn to listen. He's seated about 10 feet from me. Birkhead, directly in front of me, is less than 10 feet to his right. Stern, right hand to mouth clasps a pen in the same hand. He begins to take notes. Krista Barth puts her arm around his shoulder and whispers to him.

(1:26 PM) -- My thumbs are killing me. I press on.

Virgie looks as if she's had enough. She thanked the judge when he told her she would be getting her chance to have her say. I think she wants it now. Definitely tired of hearing lawyers spout on.

(1:14 PM) -- With judge on the phone, Milstein offers candy to others in court. Immediately following Dr. Perper informs court by phone that body is deteriorating. Virgie listens, bowing head from time to time, husband James rests his left hand on her right shoulder. Virgie looks up continues to listen to call, now dabbing eye with tissue, though no tears are visible.

(1:02 PM) -- As Stern talks about the Anna tape on Greta's show, Larry B's sister whispers "let's watch it." She mentioned this tape to me this morning and would really lilke the court to see it.

(12:51 PM) -- Stern states he doesn't want money, Virgie still writing notes. The Birkhead camp listens intently, Deborah Opri whispering to Larry Birkhead on occasion.

(12:41 PM) -- I should note that Virgie's husband James has been by her side the entire day, often holding her hand or resting his hand on her shoulder. As the tape of Anna is played in the courtroom, Virgie watches showing no emotion as Anna states she has had no relationship with her mother. As tape progresses and Anna's accusations get uglier, Virgie continues to watch without displaying her feelings.

(12:29) -- As Stern recounts his claim that Virgie went to media to say he had murdered Anna, Virgie looks directly at him. She looks down only to continue writing her notes.

(12:22 PM) -- As lawyers argue authenticity of will, Virgie continues to take notes. Virgie looks directly at Stern as he speaks about the lack of contact between mother and daughter.

(11:59 AM) -- Virgie Arthur continues to take notes with a flower headed pen as judge speaks, Stern still on stand talking about his commitment ceremony with Anna. She continues to remain stoic as Judge Seidlin showboats.

by Scott Mantz

Even in today’s crowded, congested, competitive marketplace, it’s still possible for a little movie to go a long way. For proof of that, look no further than the biggest “little” movie of 2006, “Little Miss Sunshine.”

When the $8 million-budgeted indie premiered last January at the Sundance Film Festival, it got immediate attention when Fox Searchlight swooped in and acquired it for a record-breaking $10.5 million. Since then, it opened (on July 26) to glowing reviews, stayed in theaters longer than most Hollywood blockbusters and grossed an impressive $60 million domestically.

Then, in the early hours of Tuesday, January 23 – smack dab in the middle of this year’s Sundance Film Festival – “Sunshine” was nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including the big one, Best Picture. That was just three days after the ensemble comedy won the coveted Producers Guild Award. And since 11 out of the last 17 PGA winners went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture, “Sunshine” emerged a bona-fide front-runner to go the distance.

But that wasn’t always the case. Up until just a few weeks ago, “Sunshine” was perceived as a quirky little film that was lucky just to get nominated. That’s understandable, given that most of the buzz this awards season has been around Forest Whitaker (“The Last King of Scotland”), Helen Mirren (“The Queen”) and, of course, Martin Scorsese (“The Departed”). And though it was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy, it lost to the much-adored “Dreamgirls,” while the Globe for Best Drama went to “Babel.”

I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of a chainsaw outside my window. The neighbor across the street clearly felt it was appropriate to begin the tree trimming at 7:30am.

Defeated, I rolled over to cozy up to my beloved blackberry. As soon as I turned it on, it started vibrating like crazy-tons of emails were there with the word "Britney" in the subject line. 'Oh no' I thought....what now?

One of the emails contained a play-by-play account of Britney's night...details like how she was crying in her car before entering the hair salon. She shaved her head and the photo looks surprisingly good.... although one gets the feeling it wasn't a glamour move.

Most of the emails were back and forth from our producers as we prepare for Monday’s show. Our coverage is already very detailed and aggressive with all the key players in this melodrama on camera.

My blogs aren’t linear; so much is going on in the world, I hope you’ll indulge the occasional juxtaposition of unrelated topics.

Yesterday the very funny assistants from “Ugly Betty” were on our stage doing a shoot for their show. Michael Urie (Marc) and Becki Newton (Amanda) acted as Nancy and Billy’s assistants at various times throughout the morning. They were hilarious.

The photos were taken on our stage while we were taping the daily show.

Ricky Hoggard Holman could be described as the typical 18-year-old high school senior. He plays volleyball and soccer. He works during the summer as a lifeguard and volunteers at a YMCA camp for kids. When winter strikes, he enjoys building snow forts in his hometown of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. He dreams of one day of becoming an actor and admits to spending "way too much time" on the computer. Normal, right? Well, what if I told you that this teenaged, Canadian lifeguard just happened to predict the entire Top 24 contestants on America's number one rated, most talked about, most covered show two weeks before the official list came out on Wednesday night? While there have been spoilers before (especially last season when domain name registrations of hollywood round contestants done on the same day were unearthed) no one has ever called the "American Idol" Top 24 100 percent correctly. Just what does Ricky know that we don’t?

I'm watching the Broward County circuit court judge Larry Seidlin holding his preliminary hearing on the Anna Nicole paternity case.

It's a comedy session - Judge Seidlin seems far more interested in landing some zingers than anything else. And he's hot, baby.

His informal, flippant style with all these lawyers is hysterical. He has a grandfatherly approach...Shecky Greene in the house, a Borscht Belt comic...wait, if you listen the voice....its Arnold Horshack!!!!

I'm getting used to seeing Virgie Arthur, Anna's mom, on the scene, but now, thanks to a lucrative arrangement from Inside Edition (I am guessing here, but c'mon) Anna's father, Donald Hogan, appears!

The 24 semi-finalists have been announced but it's going to be an uphill battle for 7 of them when they perform live next week. Up until last night contestants Leslie Hunt, Stephanie Edwards, Amy Krebs, AJ Tabaldo, Nicole Tranquillo, Sabrina Sloan and Jared Cotter had never appeared on the show. As the history of the show has shown in the past, for contestants who had no airtime (anyone remember Patrick Hall? How about Kinnik Sky?) they have very little chance of growing a fan base. So, they will have to sing their little hearts and give a rock solid performance as well as show some personality to even make it past week one. To help you decide where to throw your votes here's some Dish on all 24 contestants

ALAINA ALEXANDER -
· Auditioned in LA
· From Redlands, CA
· 24 years old
· Lives in West Hollywood, CA
· 2000 graduate of Redlands High school
· Got a tattoo of a dove after she made it through to judges
· Has a boyfriend

AJ TABALDO -
· Auditioned in LA
· 22 years old
· From Santa Maria, CA
· He is a supervisor for a shipping service
· Sang the national anthem for Showtime Boxing at Chumash Casino
· He is of Pacific Island decent
· Currently attends Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria
· 2003 graduate of St Joseph High school in Santa Maria.
· He has tried out for American Idol five times!

ANTONELLA BARBA -
· Auditioned in New York City
· 20 Years Old
· From Point Pleasant, NJ
· Attends Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.
· Pursuing a degree in architecture
· Once toured with Monmouth Conservatory in England

BLAKE LEWIS –
· Auditioned in Seattle, WA
· 25 years old
· From Bothell, WA
· Lives in Seattle, WA
· He owns a company called Bshorty productions
· He is a beatbox champion
· He was once part of a band called Kickshaw in Seattle
· His mother and grandfather were professional singers at one point
· He toured with the Columbia Boys Choir in 8th grade
· 1999 Graduate of Inglemoor High school

BRANDON ROGERS -
· Auditioned in LA
· 28 years old
· From Pasadena, CA
· Was a backup singer for Anastasia
· Toured as backup singer for Christina Aguilera for two years
· Has shared the stage with artists like Patti LaBelle, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys, Earth Wind and Fire, Johnny Mathis, Black Eyed Peas, Anastacia, Angie Stone, and Usher
· Was a jazz vocal studies major at the world-renowned University of North Texas jazz program, where he performed alongside fellow UNT jazzer, a pre-fame Norah Jones
· Released a debut album entitled “Automatic”
· Also works as a voice coach and wedding singer.
· His mother is a published songwriter

CHRIS RICHARDSON –
· Auditioned in NYC
· 22 years old
· From Chesapeake, Virginia
· Attended Great Bridge High School
· He was # 42 on his HS football team
· He studied music composition at Christopher Newport University
· He attended Tidewater Community College
· His mother, Marilyn, was crowned Miss Great Bridge High school in 1975
· While working on his music, Richardson also has worked at the Hooters in Chesapeake, where in 4 1/2 years he advanced to kitchen supervisor.
· He was born in Belgium into a military family

As the above Chinese proverb suggests, Monday was interesting. The lighting grid was down on our stage owing to a faulty breaker, the consequence of working with aging equipment. We didn’t discover this until shortly before we were to shoot the daily show, so it was a bit of a scramble making air, especially since this was our Grammy show. We have a terrific lighting crew, and they were able to light a couple of areas for us, despite the fact that we didn’t have our full lighting complement. Stand lights were a big help. And, preparing for every eventuality, we dug into our handbags for extra flashlights and cyalume sticks in the event that extra illumination was required. Thankfully, it wasn’t.

In production there are often technical glitches which interfere with making air – a piece of equipment goes down, a tape machine doesn’t roll or record properly, an aprisa doesn’t fire. I remember one of my first TV jobs in Nashville, Tennessee, a live shoot where 7 out of 10 cameras were down owing mostly to bad weather. There was a lot of hollering in the control room at the time as I recall, but everything turned out fine. It was a country music show and simpler coverage was ideal, actually, more homey.

Well if there is any doubt that Season Four's Carrie Underwood has been able to take herself beyond just “American Idol” fame, her two Grammy Award wins for Best New Artist and Best Female Vocal Country Performance (not to mention her song, "Jesus, Take the Wheel" picking up Country Song of the Year) have sealed her musical status as one of country music's biggest stars. Meanwhile, the rest of the finalists are still trying to make their mark in the industry. Some have fared better than others. Here's the latest on all twelve of the former Idols.

Carrie Underwood - Since winning the 4th season of “American Idol” in May 2005, Carrie Underwood's debut album SOME HEARTS was released and has gone on to sell an incredible 5 million plus copies. She had three #1 country singles, "Jesus, Take The Wheel," "Don't Forget To Remember Me," and "Before He Cheats." With this album comes a whole list of awards for Carrie. At the Country Music Association Awards, in 2006, she won Female Vocalist of the Year and Horizon Award winner as well as 2 Academy of Country Music Awards, 2 CMT Awards, 2 People's Choice Awards, an American Music Award as Breakthrough Artist. Of all her accolades Carrie told us, "I used to lay in bed at night and practice acceptance speeches that I figured that I would never use when I was little. I never though I would be up there accepting awards in front of all those people."